But there's been improvements. The winget CLI can now install and update several well-known applications, and even upgrade them when you first downloaded them any other way. There's also the MSIX package format, which is much closer to distro packages or mobile apps, can auto-update without a central repository and supports sandboxing.
Nowadays, even if still a bit hacky, I definitely consider Windows packaging less painful than the mess that is Linux distribution. Packages in distro repositories are regularly outdated, and every other package is installed misconfigured or has been patched in unclear ways by the distro maintainers; then there's Flatpak which make for gigantic installs with clunky sandboxing, or AppImages.
This is the solution. Use the following web page to compare packages versions from Debian Testing and Fedora 40: https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?firstlist=debian&secondlis...
And don't be fooled by the name of the release: "Testing". The name "Testing" exists due to an orthodox approach of Debian community that only the Debian stable can use "stable".
Sid [rolling] -> Testing [rolling] -> Stable [point release]